


Murder and Cheap Coffee

by NotEvenThat



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec is a billionaire, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Anxiety, Barista Magnus, Cute things, First Meetings, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Middle Class Magnus, Mundane Magnus Bane/Mundane Alec Lightwood, Social Anxiety, famous au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 08:18:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10658622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotEvenThat/pseuds/NotEvenThat
Summary: After his parents murder, Alexander Lightwood became the heir to their wealth. While his siblings thrive in the after effects of their new fame, Alec just wants to hide.A coffee shop AU, in which Alexander is a billionaire and Magnus Bane is just a middle class barista, who takes pity on him.





	Murder and Cheap Coffee

Alexander Lightwood had recently become one of the wealthiest people in America. His family had a net worth of 73.4 billion dollars, most of which came from his father's oil wells in southern Alaska and his mother's line of jewelry, which she had started as a hobby and kept as an asset. All of his parents money, as well as their assets, liabilities and responsibilities had been transferred to him.

Of course, he didn’t keep all of it. Most of the money had been transferred to his siblings, once the legality of it all had been finalized and he was free to do what he wanted with the money. A large sum of it had been donated to charity and an even larger sum of it had been donated anonymously, after Alec learned how much publicity he would get from donating. Other than that though, Alec had only spent his share of the money on buying himself a high rise in New York; A place close enough that he could conduct business easily and a place high enough that he could hide from the world in peace.

His siblings, on the other hand, hadn’t been as conservative.

Isabelle had started her own fashion line, one she took much price in actually designing, rather than just printing her name on it. She had bought herself a car, so expensive that there was no way she could drive anywhere without being recognized by it alone. She spent most of her days eating at the most extravagant restaurants, flying out to Greece for lunch, flying back just to show up on Alec’s door with the press behind her.

Jace was even worse, only Alec seemed to be the only one who was aware of that. The pressed painted Isabelle as the flirtatious American Girl, determined to blow through her lavish inheritance within the month. They painted Jace as the star child, modeling on the weekends, spending the week with his family and flirting, not overzealously, in between.

The double standard had hardly missed Alec and his siblings but even Alec couldn’t deny that Jace was smarter with hiding his spending. He spent every night in his pent, which he refused to call as such but smirked when Alec did so, spending copious amounts of money impressing girls that he didn’t remember the names of in the morning. Every night he spend thousands of dollars on wine and grand foods that he didn’t even like, just to pay someone to come clean it all up in the morning.

His siblings also hadn’t shied away from the fame that came with his parents death.

Before his parents murder they were well known. His family's businesses were renowned and his parents tended to show up to A list events every couple of months, just to remind everyone how wonderful they were. No one really bothered them though. Their estate was left alone, regardless of the security they had in place.  They were glanced at out in public but not stalked, as some celebrities were.

That all changed when his parents died.

Suddenly, everyone wanted to talk to them. Every newspaper in the world wanted an interview with the murder children. They couldn’t leave their home without the press finding them and badgering them for an interview. They had even found Max, out with his friend and their family, and tried to get him to talk about his parents gruesome death.

Isabelle and Jace had taken the interviews. They had gone on Ellen and brushed tears away as they spoke fondly of their mother. They had been on magazine covers, special editions and they had used their new found attention to benefit themselves, in a way that was just honest enough to not be distasteful.

But Alexander was the one everyone wanted to talk to. He was the oldest. He was the one in control of his parent's legacy. He was the one granted custody of their younger brother and he was the one who turned down absolutely every call.

Alec himself wasn’t that famous. People knew his name. They knew of him in connection to his parents and his siblings. They looked at him and they knew that they had seen him somewhere but they didn’t look at him and say, “Wow! That’s Alec!” At least, they normally didn’t. He couldn’t stroll up Wall Street without being recognized and he couldn’t go fine dining without someone noticing him but in a mundane setting, if he threw on an old sweatshirt and messed up his hair, he went unrecognized.

Which, was fine by him. His siblings were fine knowing that the people around them might only be there because of their name and their wealth, but Alec wasn’t. The thought of it made his skin crawl. He’d rather go unnoticed and overlooked any day but that also meant that most of the time that Alec was out, he was a normal person and Alec hadn’t had much experience being a normal person. Growing up, his time was spent being dressed up and showed off at parties with people who accounted for the majority of the world's wealth. Interacting with people who didn’t already know him was a very unnerving process.

Like now, there was nothing happening, no one was even glancing over at him but Alec could feel his anxiety rising with every second that he hid in the back of the coffee shop, scared to go order.  

He spotted the coffee shop across the street, after he’d finished signing the pile of paperwork that took far too long to read. It was a small building, with big glass windows that shown out the soft orange light from inside. It was small, cheap and it looked like the kind of place that a college student would go late at night, to get work done.

The shop itself was wonderful. The second he opened the door the smell of coffee and caramel wafted out at him, soothing some part of his soul that he hadn’t even known needed soothing. Everything about it make him want to curl up and read. He hadn’t read a book in months, not since his parents. He’d been too busy with everything, but standing in the warm light of the shop, Alec felt like he could read forever.

And then he’d immediately been crushed with the realization that everyone was looking at him. They weren’t looking at him for any alarming reason. They were simply glancing up at the person who’d walked in. Alec knew that. Logically, he knew that. His anxiety on the other hand didn’t seem to understand that because the second he realized, he’d practically sprinted to the table in the corner and threw himself down, causing anyone who wasn’t already looking his way, to look up.

Then, he’d started to panic about what he would do if someone recognized him. He thought the small coffee shop would be safe, a nice private area for him to relax without worry of someone bothering him but now, trapped in the small shop, Alec realized his error. If someone recognized him here, he’d have no way out.  They’d say it loudly, as they always did, _“You’re Alexander Lightwood aren’t you?”_ and then the inevitable question, _“Didn’t your parents get murdered?”_

Then, everyone would know. The second someone said it, everyone would look up and think, _“Oh, yeah. That is him.”_ And then they’d listen and wait for his answer. What could he say? He couldn’t just leave, everyone had just seen him walk in. He hadn’t even ordered anything! He’d be stuck there and then the person would sit down next to him, a girl probably because it _always_ was, and he’d be trapped.

He shouldn’t have come here, he shouldn’t have even walked in. He had coffee at home, he had a four hundred dollar coffee maker that had come with his apartment sitting at home, waiting for him to learn how to use it. He could have ordered coffee from anyplace in New York and someone at the desk downstairs would bring it to him in less than ten minutes. He had work to do at home anyway. He had accounts to look over and drafts he needed to sign off on before the next day, why had he thought stopping _anywhere_ was a good idea?

“You know, you’re suppose to come up to the counter to order.”

Alec’s head snapped up so fast that even the man in front of him raised an eyebrow. The reply was stumbling out of Alec’s mouth before he had even processed what he was going to say, “I-I know. I was.. I was just..”

The man’s smirk shifted to a soft smile and he slid himself easily into the seat in front of Alec. “I was teasing, Darling. People come in here all the time and sit. None as nervous or as beautiful as you though.”

Alec didn’t blush but only because he was trying so hard to stop himself from throwing up on the table in front of him. The man was _beautiful._ Not beautiful like his family was. Not beautiful like the girls his mother had shoved at him. Not elegant with hard edges and heels to cut. The man was beautiful _effortlessly._ It was the kind of beauty that shone out without any preparation. The kind of beauty that you saw in someone, on even their worst days.

Alec opened his mouth and caught himself seconds before that all came tumbling out and then he instantly flushed under the man’s gaze. How _weird_ would that be to say to someone he had just met, a _stranger._ ‘I know you came over to me because you work here but I see people who force themselves to be beautiful everyday, people who’d kill for flawless skin, and you look prettier than any of them, any day.’

“Straight? Hm. Pity.” The man said, misunderstanding Alec’s lack of response.

Alec looked up, panicked, almost shouting that, _no, no he was not straight,_ but the man was already rising.

“I’m assuming you walked in here for some coffee. What would you like?”

Alec faltered, “Just.. coffee.” The man smirked and Alec spoke again before the man could and humiliate him anymore, “Just black coffee.”

“Coming up.” The man smiled before he walked away, like he knew something essential about Alec, just based on his choice of coffee. As he was walking away, Alec stared and noted the cheap clothing than the man was wearing, a ripped sweater under his apron and worn pants that hadn't been sold that way, before immediately grimacing at the thought and hating himself all the more for even thinking it.

He thought, almost desperately as he waited for his coffee, for a casual way for him to let the man know that he _wasn’t_ straight. Or more importantly that he _wasn’t_ straight and he _was_ interested in him. For Isabelle or Jace is would be so easy. They would smile and wink or just _ask._ They’d just say it, so easily, _‘Want to go on a date?’_ or more likely, _‘Want to come home with me?’_ but Alec didn’t want that, he didn’t even know what he wanted, he just-

He was thinking so hard that when the man finally pressed a warm cup into his hands, Alec almost dropped it. He looked down at the cup, startled and almost choked seeing the elegant looped writing on the side of it.

_‘Magnus Bane- 646 382 67XX, Incase you change your mind.’_

The man chuckled softly above him and Alec looked up. He had almost choked staring down at the man's writing but he did choke when he looked up and caught the man- _Magnus_ , smiling, not smirking like he had been before, but smiling, as if Alec was something wonderful he’d stumbled upon.

All of Alec’s previous thoughts left his mind and he blurted out, “I’m not straight!” before flushing, mumbling embarrassedly as he rubbed his hand across his sweater, in a nervous tick that his mother had always hated, “Just.. So you know.. If you were wondering..”

“Wonderful.” Magnus said and his eyes sparkled as if it was _wonderful._

He turned, starting to walk towards the counter, where he had customers waiting for him, and Alec watched panicked before calling out, “Wait!” And then reaching into his pocket, fumbling with his wallet as Magnus turned again. “You didn’t..”

Magnus smiled again, “Call me.” He said simply, turning towards the counter.

Alec watched, his wallet resting dumbly in his hands as he stared. Finally, he stood, watching Magnus for another few seconds before turning and sprinting out the door, his cheeks blushing bright red in the safety of the street.

 _I will._ He thought to himself and he walked down the street, headed in the exact wrong direction of his apartment, a big lopsided smile on his face as he stared down at the pavement. _I’ll do it, even if I have to make Izzy dial for me._


End file.
